'And So It Goes' for actor-director Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner, 67, looks back on his long career and kicks the tires on his new movie, a grown-up romantic comedy starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton. It opens Friday.

By Dana BarbutoThe Patriot Ledger

BOSTON - An autograph-seeking fan holding a “Wolf of Wall Street” poster approached actor-director Rob Reiner outside the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston. “Sure, I’ll sign it,” Reiner graciously said, engaging in small talk before he was whisked away in a black SUV to do a radio interview. Later, he’ll throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park. A half-hour earlier, upstairs in a meeting room where Reiner met with reporters to promote his new film, “And So It Goes,” the portly director indulged on half a cookie from the sweets spread. Never breaking from his aw-shucks demeanor, accessorized with a Bronx accent, Reiner, 67, looks back on his long career that started at the Priscilla Beach Theater in Plymouth and kicks the tires on his new movie, a grown-up romantic comedy starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton. It opens Friday. Reiner worked with Douglas 18 years ago on “The American President,” where Douglas shared delightful chemistry with Annette Bening. In “And So It Goes,” Reiner aims to recreate that dynamic with Douglas and Keaton. Douglas plays Oren, an irascible cad with a hidden heart of gold who’s given one last shot at love. The idea for the movie, Reiner said, was born during the press junket for 2007’s “The Bucket List,” the Morgan Freeman-Jack Nicholson starrer that he directed. REINER: Journalists would ask everybody what was on their bucket list and Jack Nicholson said, “One more great romance.” So that became what this movie was about, but then Jack quit acting, so Michael, to me, was the greatest choice we could have. I mean we have the two perfect people for this movie. They’re not only great actors, Academy Award winners, iconic and all that, they’re both still vibrant, and they got all this great sexuality to them. So it’s all about finding love at that stage of your life. I read somewhere that Diane Keaton has a bucket list of people she wants to kiss and I think he was one of them. Reiner first gained fame in the 1970s on the sitcom “All in the Family” as Archie Bunker’s (Carroll O’Connor) radically liberal son-in-law, Mike, aka Meathead. After that series ended, Reiner focused on directing, helming classics such as “When Harry Met Sally,” “Stand By Me,” “This Is Spinal Tap,” “A Few Good Men,” and “Princess Bride.” But of late, he’s been back in front of the camera, playing the fathers of Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Zooey Deschanel on the sitcom “New Girl.” He also has a small part vying for Keaton’s affection in “And So It Goes.” REINER: If something comes along that I think I can do and they want me to do it, yeah, I love acting. I don’t love acting so much in the movies I direct because it’s a split focus and it’s kind of confusing. But in this one, it was hard to turn down the part because anytime you get to wear a completely undetectable hairpiece you have to jump at the chance ... When Martin Scorsese calls you do whatever he says. The only thing I regret is there were not enough nude women in any of the scenes. And hardly any F-words. I felt very privileged to be able to say the F-word in a Martin Scorsese movie because then you know you’ve arrived. Reiner has directed three actors (Kathy Bates, James Woods, Jack Nicholson) to Oscar nominations, and has three movies in the American Film Institute’s list of Top 100 love stories. While filming those movies, Reiner said he had no idea they’d have staying power. REINER: You’re just making the movie, and you’re trying to create scenes that serve the story and serve the characters. You never know what’s going to stand out. The audience tells you that later. I knew the orgasm scene [from “When Harry Met Sally”] would be funny. I had no idea that the line that my mother said – “I’ll have what she’s having” – was going to be what it was. I thought it would just get a laugh. In “And So It Goes,” Reiner returns to the same themes – that man-woman dynamic, the awkward-flirting – that he’s tackled to varying degrees of success. REINER: If you look at all the movies I’ve made about men and women, boys and girls, you know, whatever age, it’s essentially the same movie, and essentially the same characters. And the only thing I know is who I am and how I perceive women. So I look at women as definitely more evolved, they’re definitely more mature. They’re more in touch with their feelings and they know more of what they want. And guys, like idiots, run around not knowing what they’re doing until they realize that what they want is right there in front of them. And it takes a woman to get a man to see that. So, whether it’s two young kids in “Flipped” or “The Sure Thing” or “When Harry Met Sally,” now (middle) age, it’s essentially the same. And there’s always that awkward dance that men and women do when they’re trying to get together. I just try to look at it from a different age range.

In 1987 Reiner founded his own production company, Castle Rock, and went on to make a parade of commercial crowd pleasers. REINER: I think people are always interested in men and women and what they do with each other and how they dance around with each other. Studios don’t make those pictures that much anymore. They are making three types of movies: Superhero tentpole type of things, animated, and raunchy R-rated comedies. That’s it. That’s all they’re making. If I look at all the pictures I’ve made over the years, not one of them would get made at the studio. I don’t make those kind of movies. Things that interest me are human beings and how they interact with each other. Whether it’s told in the thriller genre or a romantic comedy or a courtroom drama, it’s all about the people. Studios are not interested in adult-themed anything. ... I have more things in development now than I ever had before. I just try to find something where I can feel connected somehow to the material and the characters so I know how to tell the story through them.

Reiner and his Emmy-winning father, Carl Reiner (“The Dick Van Dyke Show”), have stars resting side by side on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but when he was growing up, Reiner said he felt a lot of pressure to live up to his dad’s success. REINER: It was very tough. I was able to chart my own course, eventually, but it took a while. I got to say, one of the things that I love about Michael [Douglas] is we can share those things and what it was like [to grow up in the shadow of a famous parent]. There are not many – you can count on one hand – whose parents have achieved a very, very high level of success and whose children also wound up doing OK. It is a rough road, but I wouldn’t do it any other way. It took me until “Stand By Me” to feel like I was my own person, and I was already in my 30s at that point. I’d been successful as an actor and done a couple of movies, “Spinal Tap” and “Sure Thing,” but it wasn’t until “Stand By Me” that I started saying this is who I am, this really reflects who I am. It had a kind of melancholy dramatic element that was funny, too. This movie has that, too. “Stand By Me” was Reiner’s third feature and earned him his first Golden Globe nomination for best director in 1987. He didn’t win the trophy, but that film is his most special. REINER: It did mark the beginning of me coming into my own as a creative person. It was the first time that I did something that really reflected my sensibility. It’s been more than 40 years since that iconic TV show that put him on the map ended, but Reiner still can’t shake the nickname. REINER: I get it every day. At some point somebody will say something. I’ve made the joke for years that no matter what I do in my life, I could win the Nobel Prize and the headline would say: “Meathead wins Nobel.” Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@ledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.